The Patriot Post® · Thursday Opinion

Today’s Editors’ Choice

• Larry Elder: It’s High Noon on the GOP’s Promise to ‘Repeal and Replace’
• Ryan Anderson: Transgender Accommodations Aren’t Compatible With Military Realities
• Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Circular Firing Squad

To view all of today’s opinion, click here.

Opinion in Brief

Larry Elder: “Claude Castonguay, the ‘father of Quebec Medicare,’ criticized his own invention, and said that the mistake was not encouraging more private sector participation. In the ‘60s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee on health care reform. He urged Quebec, his home province, to enact government-administered health care, paid for by all tax levies on its citizens. Quebec obliged. Eventually the rest of Canada followed suit. But 40 years later Castonguay, serving as chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care in 2008, said the system was in 'crisis.’ … His recommendations included contracting out services to the private sector, instating co-pays to see doctors and legalizing private health care insurance. Radical stuff. Never mind that, a year later, the newly elected president of the Canadian Medical Association said that her country’s health care system was ‘imploding’ and said, ‘We all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize.’ At the same time, the CMA’s outgoing president said, ‘A health care revolution has passed us by’ and ‘competition should be welcomed, not feared.’ Better late to Economics 101 than never. The GOP took a big step this week toward fulfilling its promise to repeal and replace Obamacare by passing a procedural vote to debate the issue in the Senate. Now comes the hard part.”